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30OCTOBER 25, 2009. SUNDAY MiD DAYwww.mid-day.com

BOOKANNIVERSARY

GUIDE

ASTERIX TRIVIA

Uderzo, the illustrator, has been working on the comics alonesince Goscinny’s death in 1977. However, all Asterix booksthat have appeared so far carry both names “as a mark ofrespect” from Uderzo.

Asterix and Obelix appeared on the cover of Time Magazinefor a special edition on ‘The New France’ in 1991.

One of the most popular books in the series, ‘Asterix and Cleopatra’has two movie versions — in cartoon form in 1968 and with actorsin 2002 (‘Asterix and Obelix: Mission Cleopatra’).

There is a theme park near Paris based on this series — ParcAstérix — which is said to be as popular as neighbouringDisneyland.

Idon’t know what reading Asterix as achild did for you, but it gave me a warpedunderstanding of history. For the longesttime, what I knew of world history andgeography was what I read in Asterixcomics. Oh, I did learn stuff at school, but Iwas never convinced they knew what theywere talking about. The Asterix versioncame into my life earlier, and it was a lotmore fun. So I knew that good old Juliusand Cleopatra were an item (and nary amention of Mark Antony). I knew the secretbehind the broken nose of the Sphinx: itchipped while Obelix clambered up(‘Asterix and Cleopatra’), didn’t it? And themystery of Stonehenge? Why, isn’t that thecollection of menhirs that Unhygienix, thefishmonger (‘Asterix in Spain’) used tobeautify his empty land in Salisbury Plain?

Reading the comics again as an adult, Iadmired and chuckled over the clever waythese startling revelations appear in thebooks as casual throw-away lines. I nevercould, and still cannot, view Julius Caesarwith anything approaching respect, saywhat you will about his great conquests.And I have nothing but devotion forCleopatra, even with her scheming andmurdering her way to the throne. All thatstays with me is the image of her nose,pretty enough to floor the venerable druidGetafix himself.

The AsterixchroniclesOn October 29, 1959, Asterix and hisinseparable friend Obelix first appeared inthe pages of the magazine Pilote in France.Fifty years on, Asterix continues to kick(occupying Roman) a** with the samepanache he exhibited in his first adventureas Asterix, the Gaul. I think part of whatmakes the characters so lovable is that theynever take anything seriously.

Unlike Tintin (the rivalry betweenAsterix and Tintin fans is legendary;Vikram Seth, in his novel in verse ‘TheGolden Gate’, clearly gives a thumbs up forthe latter, to my eternal disappointment),Asterix does not rush off to the save theworld from wily, power-hungry villains. Heis happy hunting boar with his friendObelix and chipping in (with the help ofthe druid’s magic potion) to save hisvillage, or friends in trouble when required.And although Obelix does say sadly(‘Asterix and the Roman Agent’) “no-oneever explains anything to me — they justkeep me around because I’m ornamental”,he is usually happy to follow Asterix in hisadventures without a question.

The cover of the eagerly anticipatedgolden anniversary Asterix book capturesthis spirit; it shows Asterix and Obelix insplits, pointing to their golden statues.Somewhat like their creators, RenéGoscinny and Albert Uderzo, whocaricatured and made fun of the best ofthem. From Sean Connery as AgentDubbelosix in ‘Asterix and The Black Gold’(can you ever take James Bond seriouslyafter this, Martinis and mean machinesnotwithstanding?) to The Rolling Menhirsand Elvis Preslix in ‘Asterix and theNormans’ (the more famouscontemporaries of our Bard Cacofonix) andBenito Mussolini as the short andscreaming Centurion Nebulus Nimbus in‘Asterix and the Big Fight’, the duo wasmerciless.

All in good fun, though. Even the Britsfound it impossible to take offence. Giventhe history of antagonism between theFrench and the English, the authorstendered an advance apology when ‘Asterixin Britain’ was first published, “As usual, wecaricature what we are fond of, and we arefond of the British, in spite of their strangeway of putting Nelson on top of theircolumns instead of Napoleon.” And surelyenough, the title sold more copies in Britainthan any other! It was perhaps to

demonstrate this fondness that Goscinnyand Uderzo modelled Mykingdomforanos,the brave English chieftain who held outagainst invaders, on Winston Churchill(with red hair and moustache).

Crossing theEnglish ChannelThe 33 Asterix books are available today inover a 100 languages but entry into theEnglish market proved to be a demandingtask for the authors. Of this, Antony Kamm,the first English editor of the Asterix comicswrites that two British publishers includingMethuen, who published Tintin, had turnedit down fearing that humour based on punswould not translate well. The article(sourced here from the website ‘AsterixNZ’) titled “Whatever Happened to LitleOleg: Brockhampton Press in the Sixties”also mentions that the Times LiterarySupplement covered Asterix in the frontpage in its children’s books issue sometimein the early 1970s, immediately spiking itspopularity.

However, frivolous children’s comicsthese are not. The level of humour in theAsterix comics is sophisticated andingenious. If as a child, I fell in love withthe striking visuals and funny characterswith their strange costumes and activities,

as an adult, I grew to appreciate thewordplay in Asterix. Starting from the firsttentative ‘Asterix in Gaul’, each of the bookscontains several layers of meaning; trueAsterix devotees will agree that new punsemerge with each repeat reading.

Anthea Bell, one of the translatorsmentions in the piece ‘Asterix, my love’ thatlateral thinking was required to ensure thatthe humour did not get lost in translation.The clever French names have accordinglybeen translated to convey the humour inEnglish; Obelix’s dog Idéfix (of a fixedidea) is Dogmatix (having a dogma, alsoindicating dog) in English. For this reason,the Hindi rendition, ‘Kutta Bhounkix’ doesnot pack quite the same punch (nor does‘Hakim Vaidix’ for the veteran druidGetafix!).

In an interview on the BBC website,Uderzo doubtfully attributes the popularityof the Asterix comics to “the revenge of thesmall against the strong, which theaudience can relate to.” While this could betrue of any superhero comic, what worksfor Asterix is that the wit is topical yettimeless. For instance, in ‘Obelix and Co.’, abiting satire on capitalism, CaiusPreposterus (a graduate of the LSE — LatinSchool of Economics) is employed to turnan utterly useless product (menhirs) into acoveted object of desire; a role that allcontemporary marketing professionals willempathise with.

And then those names! My personalfavourites are — Centurion Chrismusbonus(the first Asterix villian — in ‘Asterix theGaul’), Squareonthehypotenuse (thecrooked architect in ‘The Mansions of theGods’), Vitriolix (code name H2So4 —Caesar’s spy in ‘Asterix and the Black Gold’),Ptenisnet (Egyptian volunteer, translator ofhieroglyphics in ‘Asterix the Legionary’),Ekonomikrisis (the Phoenician sailingmerchant who appears in several books),Valueaddetax (British druid friend ofGetafix — in ‘Asterix and the Goths’) andCenturion Gaius Veriambitius (pushingLegionary Gluteus Maximus — named afterthe buttock muscle — towards fame andfortune at the Olympic Games).

So after 50 years of bashing up thebaddies, hunting and roasting boars andtravelling around the world, Asterix andObelix are not tired. Nor are the admirers;look forward to the special anniversarycollection ‘Asterix: The Golden Book’.

Asterix, Obelix and the indomitable Gauls have entertained us for 50 years now. Charukesi Ramadurailooks back with affection at the Gauls who feared nothing but the sky falling on their heads

ASTERIX-TINTIN

BATMAN-SUPERMAN

KAPIL DEV-GAVASKAR

DELHI-MUMBAI

T20-ONEDAY

APPLE’SMAC-PC

NOKIA-OTHERS

MAN U-CHELSEA

INDIA-PAKISTAN

FEDERER-NADAL

THE GAULS MUST BE CRAZY

GREATRIVALRIES

Charukesi lives in Bangalore and writes,photographs, blogs, faces the book,tweets, travels and occasionally, veryreluctantly, works as a market researchconsultant.

PIC/AFP

Uderzo with his creations, Asterix and Obelix